For Doug Mulholland (BMath’82), a Research and Technical Manager at the Cheriton School of Computer Science, his work flows like water.
Upon graduation, he worked for the Computer Systems Group (CSG), currently directed by Distinguished Professor Emeritus Don Cowan. Since the early 1970s, their mission has been to make technology more accessible. Initially, the team focused on making computer science technology and education more usable to first-year students. The late 1980s to early 1990s saw the emergence of networked computers and web-based technology. Many people, including researchers, government agencies and non-government organizations (NGOs) had problems that easy-to-use online mapping could greatly benefit. Yet, mapping technology was complicated, and its use was painfully labour-intensive.
"Our team’s rationale was 'We just want to tape a map on the wall, stick pins in it and show people where important sites are located'. This concept was well before Google Maps came along,” says Doug. “That kind of mapping was difficult to do and an approach we started to take was, ‘Can we make this mapping easier for others to use?’"
Read the full article from Computer Science to learn more.